HEIC photos: when to choose JPG or PNG

Choose JPG or PNG for the destination

JPG works well for ordinary photographs and broad compatibility. Its compression is lossy and transparency is filled with the background colour you choose. PNG avoids another JPEG compression step and supports transparency, but may be much larger. Changing the format cannot recover detail that was already lost. Keep the original HEIC as your source copy.

Convert one photo first

1. Open HEIC to JPG or HEIC to PNG from the related tools below and select a HEIC file.

2. For JPG, choose a quality preset and background colour. Set maximum width to 0 to keep the decoded dimensions, or enter a smaller width. The tool does not enlarge smaller images.

3. Start processing, then download the result. Open the downloaded file in the app or form that originally rejected the HEIC.

4. After checking the result, add the rest of your photos. Use individual downloads or prepare a ZIP when there are multiple results.

A size check you can reproduce

If the decoded image is 4000 × 3000 pixels and maximum width is 1600, the output should be 1600 × 1200 pixels. A decoded 1200 × 900 image stays 1200 × 900 with that same setting. Check pixel dimensions, orientation and visible detail after downloading. File size depends on image content and the browser encoder; a specific percentage reduction is not promised.

What this conversion preserves and omits

The tool produces a static image from the decoded pixels. It does not copy the source metadata structure or provide a complete Live Photo or multi-image HEIC export; the fallback decoder selects one image. Do not use the result as an archive of EXIF/GPS data, HDR information or all source frames. Review colour and orientation yourself, especially when moving between displays or applications.

Limits and a useful recovery path

The image engine accepts at most 50 files, up to 48 MiB per file and 200 MiB per batch. Decoded images must be at most 40 megapixels and 16,384 pixels on either side. These limits do not guarantee that every phone has enough memory. Try one smaller file if a batch fails. Unsupported or damaged HEIC variants may still fail; export JPEG or PNG from an application that can open the source, then use the matching tool. Renaming the extension does not convert the image.

Local files and website requests

Photo bytes are processed in this browser, not sent to a conversion service. The page and decoder still need to load over the network. The live site also uses Cloudflare Web Analytics and includes a Google AdSense tag; these requests are separate from processing your image. See Privacy for details. Opening the homepage once does not make every tool available offline.

Sources and references

• Apple: HEIF and HEVC
• MDN: image formats

Related tools

• HEIC → JPG

  Make iPhone photos easy to open anywhere.

• HEIC → PNG

  Convert images locally, adjust settings and download.

• PNG → JPG

  Convert images locally, adjust settings and download.

• JPG → PNG

  Convert images locally, adjust settings and download.